355: When faced with an opponent you can't defeat, just eat first.

Unlucky, unlucky, unlucky!

How did I run into this damn cat again?

Zhou Yan had just been flying at full speed, trying to get far away from that troublesome place, but who knew that not long after he took off, a familiar black cat blocked his path.

It started with a hiss, as always, and it was still in hot pursuit.

Damn it, this dead cat is still chasing me!

Half a month ago, Zhou Yan had relied on switching between his male and female forms, wrapping the other body in a sticky rice dumpling suit and burying it underground, to barely escape that calamity.

Now that he had finally managed to get away, he had unexpectedly run into it again; this cat had truly left Zhou Yan with psychological trauma.

Not only could its attacks bypass his status and deal direct damage, but the pain lasted for an incredibly long time; even half a month later, it hadn't completely faded.

The deepest cat claw marks on his left shoulder and lower back still made Zhou Yan gasp in pain even now.

But after flying for half an hour, Zhou Yan finally noticed something strange.

His heart tightened, and he turned back to look.

[Cat]

[Realm: Soul Transformation Early Stage]

[Vitality: 200w / 1000w]

[Mana: 0 / 200w]

[Special Status: Both Living and Dead]

Why is it crippled?

What happened?

No wonder he kept feeling something was off. Although he had burned his essence blood and traded away a portion of his maximum health to gain a 30% boost in speed, he shouldn't have been able to outpace that black cat.

Previously, the black cat could toy with him based on its flight speed alone. If the speed difference hadn't been so vast, he would have burned his blood to escape back then and wouldn't have lost two lives.

But now, its speed had slowed down significantly, matching his own current speed, and for some reason, even its mana was empty.

Zhou Yan's eyes darted around, and a thought occurred to him.

Being chased like this was not a solution; the distance between them couldn't be widened, and he still had three lives left to test things out. Did this mean... he could counter-kill?

As one of the three great illusions in life, "I can counter-kill" was now faintly tempting Zhou Yan.

This cat clearly wasn't simple. With an elite monster's panel, it might drop good loot. Besides, it was already at low health, so even if it wasn't for the rewards, it would be worth it just for revenge.

Within two breaths, Zhou Yan had made up his mind and backhanded Zhou Yans Marvelous Array out.

The opponent seemed to lack intelligence, its reaction slightly sluggish, and it was directly enveloped by the Formation.

Immediately following was bursting starlight, along with the Nascent Soul Domain that Zhou Yan followed up with closely.

The black cat tried to resist, revealing its claws once again.

The moment he saw the cold light flash on those claw tips, Zhou Yan's whole body tensed up subconsciously, and he almost turned to flee.

But the claws only swiped out a huge claw mark in the end, striking the Nascent Soul Domain without causing much of a stir, only slightly shortening the Domain's duration.

Heh... hehe, heh hahahaha!

Zhou Yan covered one eye with his hand, brushed back the long hair hanging over his forehead, and re-equipped his Path of Slaughter title.

Half a month!

Do you know how I've spent this past half month!

I'll let you, this damn cat, witness my invincible posture.

Realizing he could actually win, Zhou Yan immediately changed his tune, pulled out yuanwu xielü, and began to beat the drowning cat.

Thunder Sphere!

Thousand Winds Circulation!

Hundred Rivers Convergence!

Flying Fire Meteors!

Zhou Yan poured out all the strongest methods he could use.

The Thunder Sphere was a move that compressed thunder to the extreme, with inspiration drawn from the thunder orbs he had used to blow up those two Half-Demons in the Secret Realm back in the day.

Thousand Winds Circulation was one of Feng Xu's commonly used lethal moves, and Zhou Yan had secretly practiced it to completion as well, but its hit rate wasn't high, and it was always difficult to balance damage and control, so aside from dealing with living targets like this, Zhou Yan basically hadn't used it much.

Flying Fire Meteors was purely just him shouting for effect; in essence, it was just a bombardment from yuanwu xielü carrying the power of two types of fire seeds.

As for Hundred Rivers Convergence, it was an old performer; its control was decent as always, but the damage came incredibly slowly.

In fact, in the era of New Laws, lethal moves or ultimate moves were not very common. With the changing of eras, many old techniques had been simplified or optimized through evolution.

It could be said that for most Cultivators in the era of New Laws, their casual basic attacks were the ultimate moves and lethal moves of the past.

Just like the many variants of the "Flame Art" researched by the Elders; everything that could be developed had already been developed, leaving only space for minor adjustments.

Therefore, nowadays, Cultivators generally only prepared a few ultimate moves that suited them, and for Zhou Yan to be reciting lines while randomly throwing out skills like this was purely for venting his anger; in reality, aside from Hundred Rivers Convergence, none of them counted as major moves.

This overwhelming offensive was far stronger than what he had unleashed half a month ago. Unlike the last time when he could only output damage during a three-second gap, this time Zhou Yan had exhausted all his methods; common ones, uncommon ones, and even ones he hadn't fully mastered, he used them all.

Just like that, under the dual support of the Nascent Soul Domain and the Formation, Zhou Yan bombarded it wildly for half an hour, finally emptying the opponent's remaining 2 million health bar.

Zhou Yan panted as he retracted the Formation, looked down at the black cat lying on its side in the giant crater, and revealed a satisfied smile.

Finally dead. Now—

Swish.

A black shadow suddenly streaked over, but Zhou Yan had dodged to the side first, only having the clothes on his chest slashed open, leaving a bloody mark.

Fortunately, he was in his male form at the moment, otherwise he would have been exposed.

But immediately after, that familiar yet much weaker pain came again.

Zhou Yan looked behind him in disbelief.

Another black cat was pouncing over; Zhou Yan couldn't dodge in time and had no choice but to expand his Nascent Soul Domain to suppress it with the Power of Law.

Under the suppression of the Law, the black cat meowed wildly, its wild nature still present, but it exuded a clear sense of dullness.

[Cat]

[Vitality: 200w / 1000w]

[Special Status: Both Living and Dead]

How is this possible?

The health bar is full again?

Could it be the effect of 'Both Living and Dead'?

Schrödinger's cat, between dead and alive...

All clues flashed rapidly through Zhou Yan's mind: Tree Zombies, the short video explanation about Schrödinger's cat he had once watched on Blue Star... but he still couldn't understand the opponent's status.

Could this thing be unkillable?

Although he didn't know what the black cat's current situation was exactly, Zhou Yan remembered Shi Suiyan saying that under the takeover of "Sui", monsters could be created that existed between multiple time periods and were difficult to completely eliminate.

Could it be the same type of monster?

Just now, it was purely for venting, so Zhou Yan hadn't used the Power of Law, so this time he attacked with the Law directly within the Nascent Soul Domain.

Although the Law of the Heart wasn't suited for combat, and using it this way consumed more, Zhou Yan had no other choice.

Under the suppression of power at a higher level like the Law, the black cat's 2 million health bar returned to zero again in just a few minutes.

Zhou Yan watched the black cat die again and couldn't help but sigh softly.

I have to say, this guy's resistance is truly high; my damage output efficiency when I fought Wang Defu back then was higher than this.

Before he finished speaking, a black shadow appeared again where the black cat's corpse lay. It repeated its old trick, but this time, it was within Zhou Yan's Domain. Every move it made was locked, and just as it was about to act, it was frozen by the Law again.

Zhou Yan's anger had subsided by now, so he walked a few steps closer and stroked his chin as he examined it.

This is tricky now... killing it once consumes half my mana, or one-fifth of my Power of Law, but after killing it, it just revives.

If I ignore it, it chases me and attacks me.

Although the health it takes from me in surprise attacks now isn't much, and I can react to it, its attacks are indeed very painful, and it can even penetrate my game status.

The effect of burning essence blood has already passed, and if I run again, I definitely won't be able to outrun it. I can't just burn essence blood again to maintain speed, right?

How long would I have to keep burning it?

Can't kill it, can't shake it off.

The best countermeasure Zhou Yan could think of at this moment was to use the Power of Law to capture it and take it with him on his journey.

When the Law was exhausted, he would bombard it with Spells for half an hour, then continue on his way once the Law recovered.

Although this method was feasible, it was too stifling; it made him vaguely recall a short film he had seen back on Blue Star about someone killing with a spoon. This was pure torture.

Sigh, since things have come to this, let's eat first.

Zhou Yan still maintained his past habit: whenever he encountered a difficult problem, he would first sleep to refresh his status. But since he couldn't sleep right now, he switched to eating to soothe his mood.

He took the imprisoned black cat, moved away from this devastated battlefield, found an open space to the east, and sat down. He casually plucked a handful of wild grass, rubbed it in his palms, and conjured up a plate of stir-fried wild vegetables that looked, smelled, and tasted perfect.